Let's Celebrate National Poetry Month with a Mini-Challenge!

I came across a list at Goodreads called "Favorite Poets of Color" and it gave me an idea for a mini-challenge here at the POC Reading Challenge blog. I wish I would have thought of it earlier in the month, but we've still got 2 weeks left. Through the end of April, write up a blog post about a poet of color. It can be a review of a poetry book, it can be a spotlight on a poet of color, it can be a list of some of your favorite poets of color, it can be a poem written by one of your favorite poets of color. I'm opening it up to any kind of post as long as it focuses on poets of color. Let's limit entries to one a day per person. :-)

I have a couple of poetry books here that I will offer up as prizes to participants and I'll pick two winners randomly out of all of the entries. I'm happy to send to international participants as well.

What can you win?
I'm offering The Book of Light by Lucille Clifton (gently used), Burnt Sugar: Contemporary Cuban Poetry in English and Spanish, and She Had Some Horses by Joy Harjo (gently used)**. The winners will get to choose one of these books. :)

**Note for the FTC: I bought these books with my own money.

Poets of Color Mini-Challenge Posts

1.	I Love to Read: Miss Rosie by Lucille Clifton	6.	Karen @ GHHS Library
2.	Stone-Bow: Favorite Poets of Color	7.	Audre Lorde @ Kinna Reads
3.	Zee @ Notes from the North	8.	Tupac Shakur @ The Englishist
4.	Karen @ GHHS Library	9.	Vasilly
5.	National Poetry Month Spotlight on Lucille Clifton

(Collection closed)

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March Winner!

Some great reviews throughout March. Remember, if you visit the reviews and comment on them, you could win a prize at the end of the challenge.


The monthly March winner as chosen by random.org is....

Jessica at the Stone-Bow!

Her chosen review was of Shine, Coconut Moon by Neesha Meminger

Do check out her blog, the Stone-Bow. She reviews a lot of books, and she's very thorough. She's added many books to my tbr pile.

I will be emailing you shortly. Jessica, you have 48 hours to reply back to my email. Choose what book you want from the Prize List

Congrats Jessica and to all past winners! Keep reading and reviewing (and link them up for a chance to win!)

April Book Review Links

Would you like your review to be highlighted on this blog? If you have a review that you want featured on the site email it to pam@eurobands.us with your link, a picture of yourself if you have one, and a short bio.

Link up your April POC Reading Challenge book reviews here:

April POC Review Links

1.	Tan to Tamarind (Vasilly)
2.	Ash by Malinda Lo (Amanda)
3.	Abdullah and His Grandfather by Andy McNab
4.	Yago Ogawa -The Pregnancy Diary -The Reading Life)
5.	Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri (Tia's Book Musings)
6.	Reading Lolita in Tehran (Nymeth)
7.	Glorious by Bernice McFadden (A Few More Pages)
8.	Liar by Justine Larbalestier (audio) BookLove: Teen
9.	The Bum Magnet (The Englishist)
10.	Heaven and Hell by Jhumpa Lahiri
11.	The Writing on my Forehead by Nafisa Haji (Helen's Book Blog)
12.	The Agency: A Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee
13.	Embroideries (The Englishist)
14.	Crossing by Andrew Xia Fukuda (lawral @ lucy was robbed)
15.	Stigmata: A Novel by Phyllis Alesia Perry
16.	Shine, Coconut Moon (Helen's Book Blog)
17.	A Map of Home by Randa Jarrar (Tia's Book Musings)
18.	Rain Is Not My Indian Name (The Cazzy Files)
19.	Beloved by Toni Morrison (Athyrium filix-femina)
20.	Mardel - The Help
21.	Dead Above Ground by Jervey Tervalon
22.	Kitty Kitty (The Englishist)
23.	Walker Stories Set in Africa
24.	Walker Stories from the UK
25.	Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi (Athyrium filix-femina)
26.	Secret Keeper by Mitali Perkins (Brown Paper)
27.	Life of Pi (Karen GHHS)
28.	Devil\'s Kiss by Sarwat Chadda (Brown Paper)
29.	Notorious Spinks - Li'l Mama's Rules
30.	Train Man by Hitori Nakano (The Reading Life)
31.	The Iron King by Julie Kagawa (Reading Extensively)
32.	Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles (Reading Extensively)
33.	The Surrender Tree by Margarita Engle (Karen)
34.	The Help (Helen's Book Blog)
35.	Libyrinth (lawral @ lucy was robbed)
36.	The Rose That Grew from Concrete (The Englishist)
37.	The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (The Reading Life)
38.	Brownsville by Oscar Casares (Feminist Texican)
39.	Persepolis 1 by Marjane Satrapi (Books&Wine)
40.	What is the What: An Autobiography of Valentino Aschak Deng by Dave Eggers
41.	Ruby Lu, Brave and True by Lenore Look
42.	The Vast Fields of Ordinary (Stone-Bow)
43.	Black, White and Jewish (Stone-Bow)
44.	The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian (Vasilly)
45.	Wench (Vasilly)
46.	Watermark by Vanitha Sankaran (A Few More Pages)
47.	Nikki & Deja (Thehappynappybookseller)
48.	Keena Ford (Thehappynappybookseller)
49.	My Shoes and I (thehappynappybookseller)
50.	Out of my Mind (Thehappynappybookseller)
51.	Orange Peel\'s Pocket (Thehappynappybookseller)
52.	Chavel and the Magic Bubble (Thehappynappybookseller)
53.	The Last Summer of the Death Warriors (Thehappynappybookseller)
54.	Crossing Bok Chitto (Thehappynappybookseller)
55.	My Friend Maya Loves to Dance (Thehappynappybookseller)
56.	Guardian of the Dead (Thehappybookseller)
57.	Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah (Muse)
58.	The Opposite House by Helen Oyeyemi. (Muse)
59.	The Skin I'm In by Sharon G Flake (I Was A Teenage Book Geek)
60.	Crossing by Andrew Xia Fukuda
61.	Red Glass by Laura Resau (Karen GHHS)
62.	The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (Beach Reading)
63.	The Translator (Beach Reading)
64.	The Shadow Speaker (Beach Reading)
65.	Girl Overboard (Beach Reading)
66.	Whale Rider (Beach Reading

(Collection closed)

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Spotlight Review: Sweet Hereafter by Angela Johnson

This review is a guest post by the awesome LaTonya at Black Eyed Susans

LaTonya is closer to fifty than not and happy about it. She has two daughters, one kitty and one great guy. In her former life she worked in reference publishing and had a successful run as a small press publisher, book charity administrator and currently her friends call her a literacy advocate. Favorite genres: YA, women's and multicultural literature. Favorite food is Indian. She's like young crooners like Jaime Cullen and mature singers like Cassandra Wilson and Dianne Reeves. She will not name a favorite author or book. :-)

Having read the other titles in the trilogy, I think sweet, hereafter is a deft closing. This final installment is about Sweet, a young girl we meet through Marley in Heaven. Sweet is odd; she wears knee high rain boots, isn’t obsessed with ipods or Facebook, drives a truck dubbed Alice and likes feeding ground hogs apple peels. She doesn’t fit in with her perfect, beautiful family. In this closing book, it’s a few years later and Sweet, a senior, is still odd but popular. When her relationship with her family reaches her breaking point, she moves in with Curtis, another quiet but friendly young man enlisted in the Reserves home after one tour in Iraq. Their connection is both tender and tenuous.

The story unfolds slowly. The commentary is sparse and even the most dramatic scenes are subdued. This is however a poignant read. Johnson renders a short, but memorable story about how we find meaning and make connections in the lives we lead. There’s no happy ending but there is resolution. There is some peace. To paraphrase one of the characters, there is enough. We don’t get a lot of time with the characters, we don’t get lengthy histories or long passages of dialogue but we do get enough. We get a mother connecting with a daughter in a way I think the daughter understands. We get a young girl and young man loving for a time. We see friends doing what they can. We get enough.

In a culture where communication is a juxtaposition of multi-tasking and texting, I think this kind of brevity matches teens' modern sensibility without compromising the art. This is life distilled in a meaningful way.

The length of the book works. This book is small but powerful. Yes, it is a good for a reluctant reader and a broader audience as well. My experience is that most teens want everything from food to entertainment to get to the point and get there fast. No, we don’t get 400 pages of pining or violence. It’s not an epic tale of adventure. It is what I think the author intended: an intimate close to a series that has looked at relationships the way they really happen.

For me the read is seamless; elegant in sparse prose lines that feel like poetry. The depth of the work is understated but potent.

Have you read any Johnson? How do you feel about slim volume YA titles? What elements do you need in a work to keep you interested: dialogue, action, fantasy, humor?

March reviews

Hey guys and gals. Just a quick note to let you know that I want to highlight some of your PoC reviews this month! If you have one that you want on the site email it to pam@eurobands.us with your link a picture of yourself if you have one and a short bio.

Lee & Low Books Acquires Tu Publishing, Brings Diversity to Fantasy and Science Fiction

LEE & LOW BOOKS, the respected independent children's book publisher specializing in diversity, has acquired Tu Publishing, an independent press focusing on multicultural fantasy and science fiction for middle grade and young adult readers.
 

New York, NY (PRWEB) March 9, 2010 -- LEE & LOW BOOKS, the respected independent children's book publisher specializing in diversity, has acquired Tu Publishing, an independent press focusing on multicultural fantasy and science fiction for middle grade and young adult readers.

“This is a natural fit for us,” says LEE & LOW publisher Jason Low. “Our customers have been asking us for years to publish stories for older readers. Tu represents an excellent way for us to bring diversity to a whole new audience.”

Recent controversies over whitewashing have brought widespread attention to the dearth of people of color in fantasy and science fiction stories, although avid fans of these genres have long acknowledged the problem.

Tu Publishing founder Stacy Whitman began the press in 2009 to address the need for more books featuring diverse characters and inspired by non-Western cultures, a need that she had seen as both a reader and an editor of fantasy and science fiction.

Supporters met Whitman’s project with great enthusiasm and donated funds via the online organization Kickstarter to help launch the company. Through many small donations, Tu Publishing surpassed its $10,000 goal, catching the attention of LEE & LOW.

“The fact that Tu was able to raise so much money indicates that there is a real need for this,” says Low. Since Tu will now become an imprint of LEE & LOW, all money will be refunded to donors.

“The outpouring of support on the Kickstarter project and from children’s book professionals validates my mission, and the opportunity to join forces with LEE & LOW, with its vast experience publishing diverse children’s books, will allow me to accomplish my goals even beyond what I could have expected,” Whitman explains.

Whitman will join LEE & LOW as editorial director of the new imprint, which will undergo a slight name change to Tu Books. Several manuscripts are already under consideration for possible acquisition, with hopes of releasing the first books under the new imprint in 2011.

**Press release courtesy of PRWeb. Thank you to Miriam for bringing it to my attention!

February Winner + A Link of Interest

Time to announce the February winner who is *DRUMROLL*



The Cazzy Librarian!

Cazzy reviewed Pemba's Song which was the review picked by random.org

Congrats Cazzy :) You have 48 hours to email me with your mailing address and your book choice from the prize list.

And for everyone else, we have a lot of prizes so even if you don't when one during the monthly giveaway, you could win one at the end.

Also do check out this post by author Justin Allen. it's funny, informative and it talks about books and their covers (specifically, whitewashing).

Here's an excerpt.

The New York Times Book Review Hates YOU, but I Don’t;
Or… Why Where Your Book Gets Shelved Determines Your Intelligence,
Work-Ethic and Value to Society

That’s a longish title I’ll admit, and while I generally don’t go in for
such larded vessels, in this case I’m willing to make an exception.
Monstrous though it may seem (and most assuredly is), the above title
sums up pretty much everything I have to say on the subjects of writing
and publishing. The first line ought to be read as a word of warning to
struggling writers. The second explains - in as much as an explanation of
the unintelligible is even possible - why the publishing industry behaves
as it does. And the third highlights our common enemy, which turns out to
be ourselves.
Really - if I must say so myself - that title is a wonder of economy,
precision and restraint. But maybe you’d like me to elaborate? Normally
I’d refuse - principally on the grounds that my arguments tend to be
weakened by exploration - but as I have been contracted to provide a
minimum of fifteen minutes of reading diversion, I will betray myself and
attempt to explain…

Why Where Your Book Gets Shelved Determines Your Intelligence, Work-Ethic
and Value to Society.